What's on TV tonight Friday 22 May 2026? Emilia Clarke is back on television, and she has brought Haley Lu Richardson with her, two CIA widow-spies navigating 1977 Moscow with no training, no cover story worth the paper it is not written on, and a title that is, technically, a bureaucratic insult. Ponies lands on Sky Atlantic at 9pm, all eight episodes simultaneously on NOW, and it arrives with a 96% Rotten Tomatoes score and a premise that makes The Americans look overexplained. It is the biggest British television event of the week.

Meanwhile, two days from now, Bob Dylan turns 85. BBC Four has something to say about that from 9pm, and it goes on until well past midnight. And in Sunderland, Fatboy Slim is about to do something to 80,000 people at Herrington Country Park that will probably rattle windows in County Durham. It is, in short, a very good Friday.

Browse what's on right now for live updates, check tonight's highlights, or head to the full channels list including dedicated pages for BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three, BBC Four, ITV1, Channel 4, Channel 5, Sky Atlantic, Sky Sports F1, Sky Sports Main Event, Sky Sports Golf, TNT Sports 1, and PBS America. Yesterday's TV guide covered Race Across the World's Series 6 finale and Marilyn Monroe Night on BBC Four: see our Thursday 21 May 2026 TV guide.

What's on TV tonight: quick picks

  • Ponies -- Sky Atlantic, 9pm -- UK SERIES PREMIERE; Emilia Clarke (Bea Grant) + Haley Lu Richardson (Twila Hasbeck); CIA spies in 1977 Moscow; Peacock original; 8 episodes drop on NOW simultaneously; 96% RT; COVER PICK
  • Bob Dylan Night on BBC Four -- BBC Four, from 9pm -- THREE PROGRAMMES celebrating Dylan's 85th birthday (Sunday 24 May); 9pm "...Sings Dylan" (Baez, Byrds, Ferry, Clapton, Cliff Richard, Adele); 10.40pm Shadow Kingdom (2021 live film); 11.30pm Tangled Up with Dylan: The Ballad of AJ Weberman (2006 doc)
  • "Fatboy Slim: Radio 1's Big Weekend Sunderland" -- BBC One, 10.40pm -- DANCE NIGHT, Day 1 of 3; Fatboy Slim (Norman Cook) headlines; Sonny Fodera, FISHER, MK; Herrington Country Park, Sunderland; also on BBC Sounds + iPlayer
  • Hidden Treasures of the National Trust -- BBC Two, 9pm -- Series 4, Episode 2 "The Duke, His Wife and Their Lover"; Ickworth House Suffolk; Frederick Hervey (4th Earl of Bristol + Bishop of Derry); Bess Foster; Georgiana Cavendish; basis for The Duchess; Attingham Park, Shrewsbury
  • World's Biggest Curry Restaurant -- Channel 4, 8pm -- WORLD PREMIERE; Royal Nawaab at the Stockport Pyramid; 1,500 capacity; 10,000 diners per week; £15 million transformation; Salamanda Media for Channel 4
  • Have I Got News for You -- BBC One, 9pm -- Alexander Armstrong hosts (44th time); Ian Hislop + Paul Merton; guest panellists Phil Wang and Judi Love (Judi Love's debut)
  • Smoggie Queens -- BBC Three, 10pm + 10.30pm -- Series 2 DOUBLE BILL Episodes 3 + 4; Phil Dunning as Dickie; Ep 3 "A Smoggie Special" -- Wizard of Oz night out; full series on BBC iPlayer
  • MasterChef -- BBC One, 8pm -- Series 22, Knockout Week; 10 chefs, 4 ovens, a pizza challenge; Anna Haugh + Grace Dent judging; BBC iPlayer
  • Hacks -- Sky Atlantic, 10.05pm -- Series 5 (FINAL SEASON), Episode 9 of 10 -- PENULTIMATE; Jean Smart as Deborah Vance; finale is 29 May; Sky/NOW
  • "Bradley & Barney Walsh: Breaking Dad" -- ITV1, 7.30pm -- Series 7, Episode 4 of 6; Australia -- Brisbane and Rockhampton; medieval roleplay at the trots; 61-year-old pole dancer; ITVX
  • And Now for Something Completely Different ★★★★ -- BBC Two, 11pm -- 1971 Monty Python; Dead Parrot; Lumberjack Song; all six Pythons; reshot for US distribution
  • "Weathered: after the LA Firestorm" -- PBS America, 7.20pm -- Maiya May presents; January 2025 LA fires; 16,000+ homes destroyed; 31 deaths; Freeview Play catch-up

See what's on right now for live updates.

Tonight's TV schedule: full listings

Time Channel Programme
~11am TNT Sports 1 "Cycling: Giro d'Italia" Stage 13 -- Alessandria to Verbania, 189km; mostly flat, climbs in final 30km; Lake Maggiore finish
5pm (build-up) Sky Sports F1 / Sky Sports Main Event "Formula One: Canadian Grand Prix" SPRINT WEEKEND -- build-up from 5pm BST; FP1 18:30 BST; Sprint Qualifying 22:30 BST; Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, Montreal; NO FP2
~5pm Sky Sports Golf "Golf: CJ Cup Byron Nelson" Round 2 -- TPC Craig Ranch, Texas; Scottie Scheffler defending (2025: 31-under par wire-to-wire)
7pm BBC One RHS Chelsea Flower Show -- Sophie Raworth + Adam Frost; Dame Mary Berry; penultimate public day
7.20pm PBS America "Weathered: after the LA Firestorm" -- Maiya May presents; January 2025 LA fires; 16,000+ homes; Freeview Play
7.30pm ITV1 "Bradley & Barney Walsh: Breaking Dad" Series 7 Ep 4 -- Brisbane + Rockhampton, Australia; ITVX
8pm BBC One MasterChef Series 22, Knockout Week -- 10 chefs, 4 ovens, pizza challenge; Anna Haugh + Grace Dent; BBC iPlayer
8pm Channel 4 World's Biggest Curry Restaurant WORLD PREMIERE -- Royal Nawaab, Stockport Pyramid; 1,500 capacity; £15 million transformation
18:30-19:30 Sky Sports F1 F1 Canadian GP -- FP1 (Free Practice 1)
9pm Sky Atlantic Ponies UK SERIES PREMIERE -- Emilia Clarke + Haley Lu Richardson in 1977 Moscow; all 8 eps on NOW; 96% RT; COVER PICK
9pm BBC One Have I Got News for You -- Alexander Armstrong (44th time hosting); Phil Wang + Judi Love guest; Ian Hislop + Paul Merton; BBC iPlayer
9pm BBC Two Hidden Treasures of the National Trust S4 E2 "The Duke, His Wife and Their Lover" -- Ickworth House + Attingham Park; Hervey, Bess Foster, Georgiana Cavendish
9pm BBC Four "...Sings Dylan" -- BOB DYLAN NIGHT BEGINS; Joan Baez, the Byrds, Bryan Ferry, Eric Clapton, Cliff Richard, Adele interpret Dylan; BBC iPlayer
10pm BBC Three Smoggie Queens S2 E3 "A Smoggie Special" -- Phil Dunning as Dickie; Wizard of Oz night out; Middlesbrough; BBC iPlayer
10.05pm Sky Atlantic Hacks S5 E9 of 10 -- PENULTIMATE; Jean Smart as Deborah Vance; finale 29 May; Sky/NOW
10.30pm BBC Three Smoggie Queens S2 E4 -- second half of double bill; BBC iPlayer
22:30-23:14 Sky Sports F1 F1 Canadian GP -- Sprint Qualifying (10.30pm-11.14pm BST)
10.40pm BBC One "Fatboy Slim: Radio 1's Big Weekend Sunderland" DANCE NIGHT -- Fatboy Slim headlines; Sonny Fodera, FISHER, MK; Day 1 of 3; BBC Sounds + iPlayer
10.40pm BBC Four "Bob Dylan: Shadow Kingdom" -- 2021 live film; dir. Alma Har'el; It's All Over Now Baby Blue; Forever Young; BOB DYLAN NIGHT continues
11pm BBC Two And Now for Something Completely Different ★★★★ -- 1971 Monty Python; all six Pythons; Dead Parrot; Lumberjack Song
11.30pm BBC Four "Tangled Up with Dylan: The Ballad of AJ Weberman" -- 2006 doc; BIFA Raindance Award winner; BOB DYLAN NIGHT ends
Now streaming Sky/NOW Ponies -- all 8 episodes from 22 May 2026
Now streaming BBC iPlayer Smoggie Queens Series 2 -- all 6 episodes from 15 May 2026
Now streaming BBC iPlayer Hidden Treasures of the National Trust S4 -- new episode added
Now streaming Netflix Ladies First -- new body-swap comedy; Sacha Baron Cohen + Rosamund Pike; drops 22 May

Ponies -- Sky Atlantic, 9pm (UK Series Premiere)

Ponies, Series 1 UK premiere on Sky Atlantic at 9pm Friday 22 May 2026. All 8 episodes available on NOW from today. Created by Susanna Fogel and David Iserson. Emilia Clarke as Bea Grant; Haley Lu Richardson as Twila Hasbeck. Moscow, 1977. "Ponies" = Persons of No Interest. 96% on Rotten Tomatoes. Produced for Peacock.

This is the one. If you have been waiting for something to watch all of, right now, in a single weekend -- this is what you are waiting for. Ponies is the television event of this Friday and, frankly, one of the most anticipated UK premieres of the year.

The premise is this: two American secretaries at the US Embassy in Moscow, in 1977, at the height of the Cold War. Bea Grant (Emilia Clarke) and Twila Hasbeck (Haley Lu Richardson). Their husbands are CIA operatives. Their husbands die, under circumstances that are immediately and obviously suspicious. The CIA, needing people in Moscow who will not be noticed, looks at these two women and sees exactly what the intelligence community calls "ponies" -- Persons of No Interest. No training. No profile. No threat assessment from Soviet counterintelligence. In other words, the ideal operatives.

The joke, in the best possible sense, is that the CIA has identified the exact people least equipped for espionage and decided that this is, in fact, a qualification.

Why this works

Emilia Clarke has been very choosy about what she does since Game of Thrones ended. She has not been everywhere. Ponies is the project she chose, and it shows in every frame. Clarke's Bea Grant is not a bumbling innocent -- she is a genuinely capable person who happens to have been placed in an impossible situation by institutions that view her as expendable. That distinction matters. Haley Lu Richardson's Twila Hasbeck is the complement: where Bea is measured, Twila is impulsive; where Bea holds things in, Twila says them immediately and then wonders if she should have. The dynamic between the two is the engine of the series.

The creators -- Susanna Fogel, who directs, and David Iserson, who showruns -- have described Ponies as being "inspired by The Americans," and the Cold War Moscow setting makes that reference legible. But Ponies is funnier than The Americans, and its central women are operating from a position of deliberate invisibility rather than deep-cover expertise. The comparison is more tonal than structural.

The practicalities

The series was made for Peacock in the US, where it premiered on 15 January 2026 and immediately started collecting the sort of reviews that make streaming services very happy. 96% on Rotten Tomatoes is not nothing. The full cast also includes Adrian Lester, Artjom Gilz, Nicholas Podany, Petro Ninovskyi, and Vic Michaelis. It was filmed in Budapest, Hungary, which stands in extremely convincingly for 1977 Moscow (Budapest has been doing this for European period productions for decades; it is exceptionally good at it).

The show's title has a double meaning that the series earns. "Ponies" is the CIA's term for these embassy staff -- dismissed, overlooked, treated as furniture. By the end of the series, you may feel that the people who coined that term made a significant miscalculation.

All eight episodes are on NOW from today. The linear Sky Atlantic broadcast at 9pm is the starting gun, but you do not have to wait. This is a full box set drop.

On Sky Atlantic at 9pm. All 8 episodes on NOW.

Bob Dylan Night on BBC Four -- from 9pm

BBC Four celebrates Bob Dylan's 85th birthday (he turns 85 on Sunday 24 May 2026 -- born 24 May 1941) with a three-programme evening from 9pm Friday 22 May. "...Sings Dylan" at 9pm (Joan Baez, the Byrds, Bryan Ferry, Eric Clapton, Cliff Richard, Adele). "Bob Dylan: Shadow Kingdom" at 10.40pm. "Tangled Up with Dylan: The Ballad of AJ Weberman" (2006) at 11.30pm.

Dylan turns 85 on Sunday. BBC Four turns the Friday before into something worth staying up for. This is how you mark a milestone birthday in television: not with a clip-show or a breathless retrospective hosted by someone younger than the songs, but with the music itself, a live film that reminds you what he actually sounds like in a room, and a documentary about the most improbable figure in the Dylan mythology.

"...Sings Dylan" -- BBC Four, 9pm

The first programme is a compilation of cover versions, and it is a programme that knows what it is doing. Joan Baez. The Byrds. Bryan Ferry. Eric Clapton. Cliff Richard. Adele. These are not artists who happen to have recorded a Dylan song; they are artists whose relationship with Dylan's writing says something specific about what that writing is and what it has meant across six decades. Joan Baez and Dylan's entanglement is part of American musical history. The Byrds' "Mr. Tambourine Man" more or less defined folk-rock as a genre. Ferry's approach to Dylan is the lounge-lizard reading that should not work and absolutely does. Adele doing Dylan suggests a meeting of two artists who both understand how a song should feel from the inside.

This is BBC Four archival programming at its most purposeful: not decoration, but argument.

"Bob Dylan: Shadow Kingdom" -- BBC Four, 10.40pm

In 2021, Dylan made a film. He gathered a small group of musicians in a venue in Santa Monica, stood in front of them in a distinctive visual aesthetic -- somewhere between an old western and a speakeasy -- and played songs. Not greatest hits in the standard sense. Songs he wanted to play. Director Alma Har'el filmed it.

The result, Shadow Kingdom, is the best documentation of what Dylan actually sounds like on a good night that exists in the modern era. It is intimate in a way that arena concerts cannot be. It is also -- and this is the detail that gets to people -- a film in which Dylan appears to be genuinely present. There are moments in it where the performance and the song find each other, and the result is something that does not feel like a concert film. It feels like attending something.

Songs include "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" and "Forever Young." Both are reasons to stay up past 10.40pm.

"Tangled Up with Dylan: The Ballad of AJ Weberman" -- BBC Four, 11.30pm

This is the one that earned its Raindance Award. Directed by James Bluemel and Oliver Ralfe, made in 2006, it follows AJ Weberman -- a figure who occupies a unique position in the history of celebrity obsession. Weberman invented "garbology," a method of investigating public figures by going through their rubbish, and applied it to Bob Dylan, whose bins he rifled through repeatedly in the early 1970s. Dylan, understandably, did not enjoy this. The relationship between the two men, played out across decades, is one of the stranger stories to emerge from the world of popular music, and Bluemel and Ralfe tell it with the deadpan clarity that a story this odd requires.

Some sources have dated this film as a 2011 production. It is not. The film was made in 2006 and won the Raindance Award at the British Independent Film Awards that year. The 2011 figure appears to refer to a later television airing. The production year is 2006.

BBC Four did something similar on the run-up to Dylan's 80th birthday in May 2021. The precedent exists. The logic holds. This is BBC Four doing what it does when it is at its best.

All three programmes on BBC iPlayer.

"Fatboy Slim: Radio 1's Big Weekend Sunderland" -- BBC One, 10.40pm (Dance Night, Day 1 of 3)

"Fatboy Slim: Radio 1's Big Weekend Sunderland" -- Radio 1's Big Weekend 2026 at Herrington Country Park, Sunderland. Three days: Friday 22 -- Sunday 24 May. Friday is the dance night. Fatboy Slim (Norman Cook) headlines, supported by Sonny Fodera, FISHER, MK, Clementine Douglas, Ewan McVicar. BBC One from 10.40pm; also BBC Radio 1, BBC Sounds, BBC iPlayer.

Radio 1's Big Weekend is the largest free music event in the UK, and this year it is in Sunderland. Herrington Country Park. Up to 100,000 people across three days. The Friday opening is the dance night, and the person closing it is Norman Cook, who has been doing this for long enough that his DJ name, Fatboy Slim, is now genuinely retro-sounding rather than merely middle-aged.

"Right Here Right Now" is the signature. The crowds know it. The production knows it. The moment it starts, everyone in Herrington Country Park will know exactly what is happening. It is one of those songs that has become inseparable from the feeling of being in a large field at night when a DJ has the room.

Sonny Fodera, FISHER, and MK are on the same stage. This is a serious dance lineup. This is not the Friday pop night with everything compressed into radio-friendly sets and a headliner who thanks the crowd between every song. This is the dance night, which means extended sets, builds, and the actual architecture of what it feels like to be inside a good DJ performance.

A note on the weekend's lineup, since it has been confused in some listings: the Friday headliner is Fatboy Slim. The Saturday headliner is Zara Larsson, with Ellie Goulding, Lola Young, Louis Tomlinson, and James Blake also on the Saturday bill. Sunday's headliner is Olivia Dean, with Niall Horan, CMAT, and Myles Smith. Ellie Goulding and Zara Larsson are not performing on Friday. Do not let anyone tell you they are.

BBC One broadcasts coverage from 10.40pm. The whole thing is also on BBC Radio 1, BBC Sounds, and BBC iPlayer for anyone who wants the full picture.

Hidden Treasures of the National Trust S4 E2 -- BBC Two, 9pm

Hidden Treasures of the National Trust, Series 4, Episode 2 -- "The Duke, His Wife and Their Lover" -- on BBC Two at 9pm Friday 22 May 2026. Ickworth House, Suffolk. Attingham Park, Shrewsbury. Frederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry. Lady Elizabeth Foster. Georgiana Cavendish. A ménage à trois that became a film.

The episode title tells you exactly what you are in for, and the programme delivers on the promise. This is the second instalment of Series 4, and it visits two National Trust properties whose stories turn out to be significantly more complicated than the brochure suggests.

Ickworth House, Suffolk

Ickworth was built by Frederick Hervey -- who was simultaneously the 4th Earl of Bristol and the Bishop of Derry, a combination that tells you something about the 18th century's enthusiasm for accumulating titles. Hervey started work on Ickworth in 1794, died before it was finished in 1803, and left his son to complete the project. Grand Tour enthusiast, collector, and a man who clearly thought that any building worth having should be visible from some distance.

The episode's central discovery at Ickworth is a portrait of two women: Lady Elizabeth Foster -- known as Bess, Hervey's daughter -- and Georgiana Cavendish, the Duchess of Devonshire. The portrait is the thread that unravels a story that the National Trust collections describe with commendable directness. Bess Foster and Georgiana Cavendish were best friends. The Duke of Devonshire was Georgiana's husband. For years, the three of them lived together in an arrangement that the 18th century found unusual and that the 21st century made into a film. The Duchess, released in 2008, with Keira Knightley as Georgiana, is the version most people will have seen. The painting at Ickworth is the primary document.

Georgiana was described by contemporaries as the "it" personality of her era -- extraordinarily famous, socially magnetic, politically active, and living a private life that the public alternately adored and condemned. The portrait at Ickworth captures something of that double existence.

Attingham Park, near Shrewsbury

The second location brings a different treasure: gilded furniture from the Italian royal court of Sardinia, and the work of conservator Abi, who is in the process of restoring gold leaf. The conservation sequences in this series have consistently been among the most watchable elements -- there is something genuinely absorbing about watching skilled work done on irreplaceable objects.

On BBC Two at 9pm. On BBC iPlayer.

World's Biggest Curry Restaurant -- Channel 4, 8pm (World Premiere)

World's Biggest Curry Restaurant, world premiere on Channel 4 at 8pm Friday 22 May 2026. Subject: The Royal Nawaab at the Stockport Pyramid. 1,500 capacity. 10,000 diners per week. £15 million transformation. Produced by Salamanda Media for Channel 4 over six months of filming.

The Stockport Pyramid is one of those buildings that people who live near it have always known about and everyone else has driven past on the M60 and assumed was something to do with a business park. It is a striking, glass-covered pyramidal structure on the edge of the Mersey valley, and since April 2025 it has housed the Royal Nawaab -- a Pakistani-Indian restaurant that makes a credible claim to being the largest of its kind in the world.

The capacity is 1,500 diners. The weekly footfall is approximately 10,000. The restaurant can run up to nine weddings or events in a single weekend. There are around 150 staff. The building itself cost £15 million to transform. These numbers are not boasts from a press release; they are the operational reality of a restaurant that operates at a scale most hospitality businesses do not attempt.

Salamanda Media, a northwest production company, filmed inside the Royal Nawaab for six months. The result is an observational documentary in the classic Channel 4 factual tradition: access-led, interested in the people behind the operation as much as the operation itself. The restaurant is the setting; the documentary is about what it takes to run something this size.

This is a Channel 4 premiere -- not a streaming first, not a quietly dropped episode, but a Friday night 8pm debut on the main channel. Which suggests Channel 4 has confidence in it. Given the subject, that confidence seems reasonable.

On Channel 4 at 8pm. On Channel 4 streaming.

Have I Got News for You -- BBC One, 9pm

Have I Got News for You on BBC One at 9pm Friday 22 May 2026. Alexander Armstrong hosts for the 44th time. Ian Hislop and Paul Merton as permanent panellists. Guest panellists: Phil Wang and Judi Love -- Judi Love's debut appearance on the programme.

Have I Got News for You has a guest-host model that has, over the years, produced some of the best individual television moments the programme has generated. Alexander Armstrong's 44th appearance as host puts him in territory where the format feels genuinely comfortable in his hands rather than lent to him for the evening.

Phil Wang is one of the sharper comics working at the moment, and his relationship to the news -- analytic, slightly appalled, interested in the absurdity underneath the headline -- makes him a good fit for this format. Judi Love's debut appearance is the interesting variable. First-time panellists on HIGNFY either find their register quickly or spend the first half trying to locate it; Love, who has been a regular presence across entertainment television for several years now, does not tend to need much settling-in time.

The 9pm Friday BBC One slot is the natural home for the weekly punctuation mark on the news. The week has been what the week has been. Ian Hislop has thoughts. Paul Merton has a look on his face. This is where you process it.

On BBC One at 9pm. On BBC iPlayer.

Smoggie Queens Series 2 -- BBC Three, 10pm + 10.30pm (Episodes 3 and 4)

Smoggie Queens, Series 2, Episodes 3 and 4 -- double bill on BBC Three at 10pm and 10.30pm Friday 22 May 2026. Phil Dunning as Dickie. Episode 3: "A Smoggie Special" -- Dickie takes his work mates on a Wizard of Oz themed night out in Middlesbrough. Full series on BBC iPlayer.

Series 2 launched last Friday with Episodes 1 and 2. Tonight brings Episodes 3 and 4, which is the weekly rhythm for the series: a double bill on Friday nights, the full six-episode run across three Fridays.

Episode 3 is titled "A Smoggie Special," and the premise -- Dickie organising a Wizard of Oz themed night out for his work mates in Middlesbrough -- tells you exactly what register the series operates in. This is a comedy about chosen family, about the people you end up with when you choose your own crowd rather than inheriting one, and about the specific social texture of a northern city that is not Manchester or Leeds and does not particularly want to be.

Phil Dunning as Dickie is the centrepiece. The casting has been one of the things that makes Smoggie Queens work: Dunning plays Dickie as a man who cares about his people with an intensity that occasionally manifests as absolutely terrible decision-making. A Wizard of Oz themed night out in Middlesbrough is, on reflection, exactly the decision Dickie would make.

If you have not caught the first two episodes, they are on BBC iPlayer along with the full series. The show rewards watching in order, though Episode 3 is not inaccessible to newcomers; the characters announce themselves quickly.

On BBC Three at 10pm (Episode 3) and 10.30pm (Episode 4). Full series on BBC iPlayer.

MasterChef Series 22 -- BBC One, 8pm (Knockout Week)

MasterChef, Series 22, Knockout Week, on BBC One at 8pm Friday 22 May 2026. Judges: Anna Haugh and Grace Dent. Tonight: 10 chefs, 4 ovens, a pizza challenge.

The new MasterChef era -- Anna Haugh and Grace Dent replacing the Torode-Wallace axis that defined the programme for years -- is now into Knockout Week in its first full series run. The pizza challenge tonight is the simple-sounding brief that turns catastrophic under competition conditions: a dish with nowhere to hide, a limited number of ovens, and ten chefs who all have their own idea of what makes a pizza right.

Anna Haugh's background is in fine dining; Grace Dent's is in food criticism with a strong line in accessible and occasionally brutal prose. The combination has given the programme a different tone this series. Both know what good food is. Neither is precious about it in the way that can make cooking competition television feel self-important.

On BBC One at 8pm. On BBC iPlayer.

Hacks Series 5, Episode 9 -- Sky Atlantic, 10.05pm (Penultimate)

Hacks, Series 5 (the final season), Episode 9 of 10 -- the penultimate episode -- on Sky Atlantic at 10.05pm Friday 22 May 2026. Jean Smart as Deborah Vance. The finale airs 29 May 2026. This is not the last one. Not yet.

The finale of Hacks is not tonight. This is Episode 9 of 10. The series ends with its fifth season -- confirmed as the final run -- and next Friday, 29 May, is when it actually ends. Tonight is the penultimate episode, which in a series operating at Hacks' level is arguably the most structurally important hour of the run: the one that sets up everything the finale has to pay off, and the one where the consequences of the season's choices start arriving in the same room simultaneously.

Jean Smart has been extraordinary as Deborah Vance across all five series. The Las Vegas stand-up comedian reinventing herself, repeatedly, under pressures that the show uses to say something real about ambition and women and the specific brutality of the entertainment industry -- it has been one of the great performances of its era on television, and the fact that this is the final run makes the penultimate episode weighty in a way that a normal series episode would not be.

The US premiere of this episode was on HBO Max on 21 May 2026 -- one day before the UK airing. If you have been avoiding spoilers, the window is closing.

On Sky Atlantic at 10.05pm. On Sky/NOW.

"Bradley & Barney Walsh: Breaking Dad" -- ITV1, 7.30pm

"Bradley & Barney Walsh: Breaking Dad", Series 7, Episode 4 of 6, on ITV1 at 7.30pm Friday 22 May 2026. Australia. Brisbane and Rockhampton. Medieval roleplay at the trots. A 61-year-old pole dancer. A very large vehicle.

Breaking Dad has been running long enough that the format has evolved from "son takes reluctant dad somewhere uncomfortable" into something more genuinely affectionate. Bradley and Barney Walsh have been doing this for seven series now, which means they have been on television together in one capacity or another for a substantial stretch of Barney's adult life, and the dynamic shows it: less performance, more habit.

Episode 4 takes them to Brisbane and then north to Rockhampton, which sits between Brisbane and Cairns in Queensland and is known, among other things, for being the self-described Beef Capital of Australia. What happens there tonight involves a 61-year-old pole dancer and a very large vehicle, which is the sentence that ITV1 on a Friday at 7.30pm is built for.

"Bradley & Barney Walsh: Breaking Dad" is on ITV1 at 7.30pm. On ITVX.

And Now for Something Completely Different ★★★★ -- BBC Two, 11pm

And Now for Something Completely Different (1971) on BBC Two at 11pm Friday 22 May 2026. All six Monty Python members. Dead Parrot. Lumberjack Song. Sketches from Flying Circus Series 1 and 2, reshot without a studio audience for US distribution. Rated 4 stars.

The film is 55 years old. The Dead Parrot sketch is still the one that everyone quotes, and there are people who have quoted it so many times across their lives that they have lost the thread of why it is funny, which is a strange thing to do to a piece of comedy this perfectly constructed.

And Now for Something Completely Different was made for American distribution -- the thinking being that British television audiences were unlikely to pay to see television sketches they had already watched on BBC One, while American audiences who had not seen Flying Circus might reasonably pay to watch them in a cinema. The plan was not exactly wrong, but the film found its real audience years later. It is not Python's best work; the best work is on Flying Circus. But it is Python working at full capacity, reshot with a film budget, and the Lumberjack Song has never looked more committed to its own internal logic.

After midnight. Worth it.

On BBC Two at 11pm.

Weathered: after the LA Firestorm -- PBS America, 7.20pm

"Weathered: after the LA Firestorm" on PBS America at 7.20pm Friday 22 May 2026. Presented by Maiya May. January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires: 16,000+ homes and businesses destroyed, 31 deaths. Embers the size of golf balls. A South Carolina research centre offers potential lessons.

The January 2025 LA fires were, in terms of destruction of built environment, among the most damaging wildfires in American recorded history. The eyewitness accounts describe conditions that are difficult to conceptualise from a distance: embers the size of golf balls moving faster than people could track them, fires creating their own weather systems, entire communities reduced to foundations in hours.

Maiya May presents this PBS documentary, which moves from the catastrophe itself to a research centre in South Carolina where scientists are trying to understand the fire behaviour that made the LA firestorm so devastating. The combination of testimony and research is the formula that PBS factual does well: not trauma for its own sake, but catastrophe as a question that requires an answer.

PBS America is on Freeview Play, which means this is accessible without a subscription for anyone with a Freeview Play-enabled device.

On PBS America at 7.20pm. Available on Freeview Play.

Sport on TV tonight: Friday 22 May 2026

"Formula One: Canadian Grand Prix" -- Sprint Weekend

Sky Sports F1 and Sky Sports Main Event from 5pm BST. FP1: 18:30-19:30 BST. Sprint Qualifying: 22:30-23:14 BST. Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, Montreal. First ever sprint weekend in Canada.

The 2026 Canadian Grand Prix is a sprint weekend -- the first time the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve has hosted the sprint format, and it makes Friday night heavier than a conventional F1 Friday.

The schedule: build-up from 5pm BST on Sky Sports F1 and Sky Sports Main Event. Free Practice 1 runs 18:30-19:30 BST (6.30pm-7.30pm). Then, after a gap, Sprint Qualifying starts at 22:30 BST (10.30pm) and finishes at 23:14. There is no FP2 -- that is the sprint format. Friday is FP1 plus Sprint Qualifying only.

Sprint Qualifying determines the grid for Saturday's Sprint Race (17:00 BST Saturday). Full Qualifying for the Grand Prix itself is Saturday evening at 21:00 BST. The race is Sunday 24 May at 21:00 BST.

The Sprint Qualifying at 22:30 is genuinely compelling: a compressed, high-stakes session where drivers go straight for pole of the sprint grid with none of the conventional practice run-in. The circuit at Montreal is narrow, unforgiving, and famously punishing of mistakes near the pit wall. The first ever sprint format here should produce interesting running.

On Sky Sports F1 and Sky Sports Main Event from 5pm.

"Cycling: Giro d'Italia" Stage 13 -- Alessandria to Verbania, 189km

TNT Sports 1 from approximately 11am BST. Stage 13: Alessandria to Verbania, 189km. Mostly flat through Piedmont, climbing towards Lake Maggiore at the finish.

Stage 13 looks, on paper, like a sprinter's day: 189km from Alessandria, through Casale Monferrato and Vercelli, heading north toward the Alps. The first 160km are mostly flat south Piedmont terrain that favours the pure sprinters.

Then the stage does what stages approaching the Alps do. The final 30km include climbs at Bieno and Ungiasca, with sections exceeding 10% gradient, before the finish at Verbania on the shores of Lake Maggiore. This is the stage where a pure sprinter needs a team capable of keeping them in the lead group through the last climb, and where the breakaway specialists will be doing the mathematics all day about whether the gap they build in the flat section is sustainable.

TNT Sports 1 carries the stage from approximately 11am BST. TNT Sports also runs their "The Breakaway" studio show from Putney.

On TNT Sports 1 from approximately 11am.

"Golf: CJ Cup Byron Nelson" -- Round 2

Sky Sports Golf from approximately 5pm BST. TPC Craig Ranch, McKinney, Texas. Scottie Scheffler defending his 2025 wire-to-wire win at 31-under par.

Scottie Scheffler won the 2025 CJ Cup Byron Nelson from start to finish -- wire-to-wire, 31-under par, matching the all-time 72-hole scoring record on the PGA Tour. He is back as defending champion, which means Round 2 on Friday is a meaningful data point in whether 2026 is going to be the same story or a different one.

TPC Craig Ranch in McKinney, Texas, is a course that rewards precision off the tee and punishes wayward irons. Round 2 cuts the field and establishes the weekend contenders. Brooks Koepka is among the names in the 2026 field alongside Scheffler.

On Sky Sports Golf from approximately 5pm.

Also on tonight

RHS Chelsea Flower Show -- BBC One, 7pm. Sophie Raworth and Adam Frost present the Friday evening edition, with Dame Mary Berry as special guest. This is the penultimate public day of the show (it runs 19-23 May 2026, closing Saturday). On BBC iPlayer.

Chelsea Flower Show daytime -- BBC One. The daytime show with Nicki Chapman and Angellica Bell ran from approximately 2pm earlier today. On BBC iPlayer if you missed it.

Also streaming on Friday 22 May 2026

  • NOW (Sky): Ponies -- all 8 episodes from today. Hacks S5 available to stream.
  • BBC iPlayer: Smoggie Queens Series 2 -- all 6 episodes. Hidden Treasures of the National Trust S4 -- new episode. Bob Dylan Night triple bill. Chelsea Flower Show.
  • Netflix: Ladies First -- new body-swap comedy starring Sacha Baron Cohen and Rosamund Pike, drops today.
  • Prime Video: Good Omens Season 3 -- available from 13 May 2026 (ongoing).

Frequently asked questions: Friday 22 May 2026

What's on TV tonight Friday 22 May 2026?

The headline of Friday 22 May 2026 is the UK premiere of Ponies on Sky Atlantic at 9pm -- Emilia Clarke and Haley Lu Richardson as CIA spies in 1977 Moscow, 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, all 8 episodes available simultaneously on NOW. Also: Bob Dylan Night BBC Four from 9pm (he turns 85 on Sunday 24 May); Radio 1's Big Weekend dance night BBC One 10.40pm (Fatboy Slim headlines, Sonny Fodera, FISHER, MK); Hidden Treasures of the National Trust S4 E2 "The Duke, His Wife and Their Lover" 9pm BBC Two; Have I Got News for You BBC One 9pm (Alexander Armstrong, Phil Wang, Judi Love); World's Biggest Curry Restaurant premiere 8pm Channel 4; MasterChef pizza challenge 8pm BBC One; Smoggie Queens S2 double bill BBC Three 10pm + 10.30pm; Hacks penultimate episode 10.05pm Sky Atlantic; F1 Canadian GP Sprint Qualifying at 22:30 BST on Sky Sports F1.

What is Ponies about, and who is in the cast?

Ponies is a Cold War spy comedy drama set in Moscow in 1977. Two secretaries at the US Embassy -- Bea Grant (Emilia Clarke) and Twila Hasbeck (Haley Lu Richardson) -- become CIA operatives after their spy husbands die under mysterious circumstances. "Ponies" is intelligence slang for "Persons of No Interest." The full cast includes Adrian Lester, Artjom Gilz, Nicholas Podany, Petro Ninovskyi, and Vic Michaelis. Created by Susanna Fogel and David Iserson. It is a Peacock original -- NOT HBO Max, as some sources have incorrectly stated. Premiered in the US on 15 January 2026. Filmed in Budapest. 96% on Rotten Tomatoes. UK premiere 9pm Sky Atlantic 22 May 2026; all 8 episodes on NOW.

What's on Bob Dylan Night on BBC Four?

BBC Four's Bob Dylan Night on Friday 22 May runs from 9pm, timed two days before Dylan's 85th birthday on Sunday 24 May 2026. 9pm: "...Sings Dylan" -- cover versions by Joan Baez, the Byrds, Bryan Ferry, Eric Clapton, Cliff Richard, and Adele. 10.40pm: "Bob Dylan: Shadow Kingdom" (2021 intimate live film, directed by Alma Har'el; songs include It's All Over Now, Baby Blue and Forever Young). 11.30pm: "Tangled Up with Dylan: The Ballad of AJ Weberman" (2006 documentary by James Bluemel and Oliver Ralfe; Raindance Award winner at BIFA 2006; about the notorious Dylan obsessive who rifled through his bins). BBC Four staged a similar night for Dylan's 80th in May 2021. All on BBC iPlayer.

Is Hacks finished tonight?

No. Tonight is Episode 9 of 10 -- the penultimate episode of Hacks Series 5. The series finale (Episode 10) airs next Friday, 29 May 2026, on Sky Atlantic. Series 5 is the final season of the show. Jean Smart plays Deborah Vance throughout. The US premiere of Episode 9 was on 21 May 2026 on HBO Max; the UK airs one day later on Sky Atlantic.

What time is the Sprint Qualifying at the Canadian Grand Prix?

The F1 Sprint Qualifying at the 2026 Canadian Grand Prix takes place at 22:30-23:14 BST on Friday 22 May 2026 (10.30pm-11.14pm UK time; 5.30pm-6.14pm Montreal local time). Sky Sports F1 and Sky Sports Main Event carry coverage, with build-up from 5pm BST. FP1 runs 18:30-19:30 BST. This is a sprint format weekend -- the first ever sprint at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve. There is no FP2 on Friday. Saturday: Sprint Race 17:00 BST, Qualifying 21:00 BST. Sunday: Race 21:00 BST.

Who is performing at Radio 1's Big Weekend Sunderland on Friday?

Friday 22 May is the dance night at Radio 1's Big Weekend 2026, Herrington Country Park, Sunderland. Fatboy Slim (Norman Cook) headlines; also Sonny Fodera, FISHER, MK, Clementine Douglas, and Ewan McVicar. BBC One broadcasts from 10.40pm. Note: Ellie Goulding and Zara Larsson are NOT Friday performers -- they are the Saturday headliners. Olivia Dean headlines Sunday. The three-day festival runs 22-24 May. Also on BBC Radio 1, BBC Sounds, and BBC iPlayer.

What is Hidden Treasures of the National Trust about this week?

Series 4, Episode 2 -- "The Duke, His Wife and Their Lover" -- airs 9pm BBC Two. At Ickworth House in Suffolk: a portrait of Bess Foster (daughter of Frederick Hervey, the 4th Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry) and Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, leads to the story of their famous ménage à trois with the Duke of Devonshire -- the historical basis for the 2008 film The Duchess. At Attingham Park near Shrewsbury: conservator Abi restores gold leaf on Italian royal court furniture. On BBC iPlayer.

What is the Smoggie Queens double bill tonight?

Smoggie Queens Series 2 continues with Episodes 3 and 4 on BBC Three at 10pm and 10.30pm. Episode 3 is "A Smoggie Special" -- Dickie (Phil Dunning) takes his work mates on a Wizard of Oz themed night out in Middlesbrough. Episode 4 follows. Series 2 launched 15 May with Episodes 1 and 2; all six episodes are on BBC iPlayer. Episodes 5 and 6 air next Friday, 29 May.

What sport is on TV tonight Friday 22 May 2026?

Three events. F1 Canadian GP sprint weekend: Sky Sports F1 and Sky Sports Main Event from 5pm BST; FP1 18:30-19:30 BST; Sprint Qualifying 22:30-23:14 BST. First ever sprint format at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve; no FP2 Friday. Giro d'Italia Stage 13: Alessandria to Verbania, 189km, mostly flat with late climbing; live on TNT Sports 1 from approximately 11am BST. CJ Cup Byron Nelson Round 2: TPC Craig Ranch, Texas; Scottie Scheffler defending (2025: 31-under wire-to-wire); Sky Sports Golf from approximately 5pm BST.